How's the Cottage Living so far?

"EmmaVane;c-17941759" wrote:
@MasonGamer

You can have cows/chickens/llamas on community lots but you need to use a workaround.

You have to change the lot to Residential, move a sim in, buy the livestock and resell the lot before changing the lot type to whatever you want.

The animals and shed/coop have all the normal interactions except for trading and buying animals. I assume ownership is retained by the purchasing sim.

I tested this with Generic and National Park, so it likely works with others too.

You can also place the various other animal types in game even on community lots.

Thanks I’ll try it!

Love the photos and so glad to hear the wonderful comments on game play. I cannot wait to purchase the game next month.

I am loving it so far, I also love that a lot of features from other packs and base game really complements CoL's gameplay (beekeeping, insects house, cowplant, knitting, rocking chair, water collecting, pets, floral arranging, etc). It is definitely one of my most favorite packs so far. I am looking forward to see how it will fit in my rotational main save, but considering I also love Snowy Escape and Island living because in my rotational play I am playing for japanese and Islander families,so I can use most of the packs and not get bored. Features of CoL will definitely not gonna be forgotten even when I will play a family from a different world than HoB.
The only thing that I didn't really explored yet is the errands system, because my sim is living off the grid+simple life lot challenge and with all animals and gardening doesn't really have time for that XD I might try it in my rotational save where I will have differently played families who will be less about the homesteading and more about the villager social life.

The aesthetic of CoTL is an absolute perfection <3

I finally just got to play. At least for a little bit. Jumped in to see the new world and and see what the pack has to offer. I chose the Watson Family to play with.

My first initial take of Henford on Badgley is Wow, it's a lot smaller than I had thought. Even though I had watched videos on the world and saw pics. I knew there wasn't many lots and that's ok, but even the open world isn't as big as I thought it was going to be. Still a beautiful world and very aesthetically pleasing.

Second, it was fall in my game as I have a pre-made families save where I randomly play with them when I'm not playing with my main save or decades challenge. The world is very dark and dreary as it began to rain non stop. So I haven't really had a chance to play with the animals given the constant thunderstorm going on. So I had to add some activities to the home so they could do some indoor stuff.

Over all what little I've played I do like what I see and can't wait for the rain to stop so my sims can go exploring.

"JestTru;c-17942841" wrote:
I finally just got to play. At least for a little bit. Jumped in to see the new world and and see what the pack has to offer. I chose the Watson Family to play with.

My first initial take of Henford on Badgley is Wow, it's a lot smaller than I had thought. Even though I had watched videos on the world and saw pics. I knew there wasn't many lots and that's ok, but even the open world isn't as big as I thought it was going to be. Still a beautiful world and very aesthetically pleasing.

Second, it was fall in my game as I have a pre-made families save where I randomly play with them when I'm not playing with my main save or decades challenge. The world is very dark and dreary as it began to rain non stop. So I haven't really had a chance to play with the animals given the constant thunderstorm going on. So I had to add some activities to the home so they could do some indoor stuff.

Over all what little I've played I do like what I see and can't wait for the rain to stop so my sims can go exploring.

I found Autumn very dark but I found I was playing on my Microsoft Personal display settings at 75% so put it to 100 and it got brighter.

I had to play Sims 3 dark worlds by increasing the Gamma on my PC whilst playing as I couldn't see much at all!

Admittedly I haven't tried many of the gameplay features yet, but Henford is such a gorgeous world and I am liking the cute cottagecore CAS stuff. And of course the cows, chickens, llamas, and befriending wild bunnies! So far this has been my favourite Expansion Pack for a while I think.

I've been having more fun than I expected

Now, don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting the pack to stink, but farming has never been my thing, and I don't enjoy gardening in the Sims at all (I don't dread it, but it requires more regular maintenance than writing or painting.) Not really fond of it in real life either.

I still don't like gardening in the sims, but with the Simple Living lot challenge, it's more worth the effort. And I'm enjoying the challenge that provides more than I expected.

I'm also having more fun with chickens and llamas than I expected too. And I was actually looking forward to the llamas. :)

So, yes, I'm having fun.

I love it.

On Saturday I play-tested with one of the pre-mades, Cecilia. As with most pre-mades I don't much like her, but she didn't get struck by lightning :/ so, eh, I played her all day, because I wanted an idea of what to expect before I started with my own sim. Also, it was winter, and I wanted my sim to start in the spring. Cecilia's favorite food is the milk bread, she kept going for that even if there was something else in the fridge. I got her some chickens. Boy, do they take a lot of work! I deliberately didn't name them or befriend any bunnies, because I wanted to see how things go; I kept laughing at the fox and waiting to see if he got a chicken. He didn't, but he got a lot of eggs, and the rooster was in a constant state of terror there for a while. Poor guy. I love how the feathers fly when the fox is in the chicken coop! My chickens wandered quite a bit at first, but after a few Fox Attacks they stayed closer to home. Those darned chickens began to annoy me; they kept hatching new chicks, even though I thought I had gotten all the eggs out. I swear they hid a few on me! Selling chickens is a good way to make a bit of money.

My mother made me get a llama, because she said I had a responsibility to my chickens to protect them from the fox. ;) I said I was showing responsibility to the wildlife by letting them get the chickens and eggs but that didn't fly, forgive the expression. Yeah, I'm 58 and Mommy is still my boss, oh well. I asked what if I drown a few of my sim neighbors and she said, that's ok, but I have to take care of my chickens. :p Llamas are a lot of work, too. I never saw it chasing the fox, but the foxes started running around in circles like little maniacs, and stole fewer eggs. Once I saw 2 foxes either playing or almost fighting, that was fun.

On Sunday I started playing my own sim, Mavis. She bought Cordelia's cottage; in my story she inherited it and spent all her money just getting to town. Now she's broke. Poor girl, I gave her no skills and she came with just a few hundred simoleans. I bought some groceries and some seed packs.

Not paying attention, and knowing nothing about gardening in this game, I began merrily planting in the existing 3 plant patches. Oops, half the stuff I planted was for the wrong season. She had to pull it all up and continue planting, using the carrots and peas I had bought for her to eat, along with some herbs. Harvest time gave me more carrots and peas, and I planted more, while I wait for the basil, etc to become harvestable. The bills hit (she'd only been living there for a day or two) but she didn't have enough money. She sold all her carrots, peas and eggs at the market stall and was able to pay the bills. It was only after she got back home that I discovered I should have kept a few carrots; since this lot has the Simple Lot challenge, there was no food. :#

I made her drink a couple glasses of water, figuring it might help and sent her, hungry, to bed. By the morning she was starving, but luckily some carrots had ripened and she got to eat a few of them, raw, for breakfast. Yum! She has almost no money, and can't afford even one chicken right now, which is just as well, since she wouldn't be able to afford to feed it, either. I'm going to start her on some of the village errands in the hope of making some money or getting some food. I haven't had any luck with foraging around her house, although she has found a few fossils, which I sold straight out of inventory. From now on I'll try to make her sell everything at the village market.

Am I being mean to poor Mavis? I think of it as character building. :D

Interesting note...up till now I have regretted buying Seasons during a sale last year. This game might make me rethink that. It was atmospherically dark all through winter, and brighter in the spring. Very interesting.

Anyway I love this pack.

"calaprfy;c-17942962" wrote:
I love it! The world is my favourite (but I'm biased) and I like the little details like wildlife, the foxes, food deliveries. The lots are beautiful and cosy. My only gripe is the pub. The downstairs is always empty while the customers cram in the TV area upstairs. Might place a foosball table or a dartboard on the ground floor to prevent that.

FWIW, I removed everything from the little sitting area outside the pub bathrooms, and put the foosball table there, and then managed to fit in a dartboard (which was more challenging), in the middle room downstairs (basically horizontally along the front wall). I haven't seen too many townies using them, but it still looks much better to me that way.

"Amapola76;c-17943107" wrote:

"calaprfy;c-17942962" wrote:
I love it! The world is my favourite (but I'm biased) and I like the little details like wildlife, the foxes, food deliveries. The lots are beautiful and cosy. My only gripe is the pub. The downstairs is always empty while the customers cram in the TV area upstairs. Might place a foosball table or a dartboard on the ground floor to prevent that.

FWIW, I removed everything from the little sitting area outside the pub bathrooms, and put the foosball table there, and then managed to fit in a dartboard (which was more challenging), in the middle room downstairs (basically horizontally along the front wall). I haven't seen too many townies using them, but it still looks much better to me that way.

I added a dartboard to the pub too! I also added a card/Llama table.